'Interior. Leather Bar.'

*1/2 (out of four) "Sex should be a storytelling tool," says "Interior. Leather Bar" director James Franco. Most would agree with that sentiment and Franco's belief that MPAA restrictions prevent films' ability to capture relationships with the full scope of reality. Yet "Interior. Leather Bar" is an idea that hasn't been thought all the way through. Franco and writer/co-director Travis Mathews aim to show their version of the never-released 40 minutes that the ratings board forced director William Friedkin to cut from "Cruising," a 1980 film about a cop (Al Pacino) investigating murders in New York's gay leather bar scene, to avoid an X rating. Nearly all of the 60-minute "Interior" is an unfocused doc about its own making, featuring actors wondering why Franco's doing this and a lead actor who's straight and uncomfortable with seeing explicit gay sex. Franco insists they're telling a story, and then he and Mathews totally neglect to pick up the characters and narrative that inspired them. Showing: 7 p.m. Tuesday at Logan Theatre

*1/2 (out of four) "Sex should be a storytelling tool," says "Interior. Leather Bar" director James Franco. Most would agree with that sentiment and Franco's belief that MPAA restrictions prevent films' ability to capture relationships with the full scope of reality. Yet "Interior. Leather Bar" is an idea that hasn't been thought all the way through. Franco and writer/co-director Travis Mathews aim to show their version of the never-released 40 minutes that the ratings board forced director William Friedkin to cut from "Cruising," a 1980 film about a cop (Al Pacino) investigating murders in New York's gay leather bar scene, to avoid an X rating. Nearly all of the 60-minute "Interior" is an unfocused doc about its own making, featuring actors wondering why Franco's doing this and a lead actor who's straight and uncomfortable with seeing explicit gay sex. Franco insists they're telling a story, and then he and Mathews totally neglect to pick up the characters and narrative that inspired them. Showing: 7 p.m. Tuesday at Logan Theatre

*1/2 (out of four) "Sex should be a storytelling tool," says "Interior. Leather Bar" director James Franco. Most would agree with that sentiment and Franco's belief that MPAA restrictions prevent films' ability to capture relationships with the full scope of reality. Yet "Interior. Leather Bar" is an idea that hasn't been thought all the way through. Franco and writer/co-director Travis Mathews aim to show their version of the never-released 40 minutes that the ratings board forced director William Friedkin to cut from "Cruising," a 1980 film about a cop (Al Pacino) investigating murders in New York's gay leather bar scene, to avoid an X rating. Nearly all of the 60-minute "Interior" is an unfocused doc about its own making, featuring actors wondering why Franco's doing this and a lead actor who's straight and uncomfortable with seeing explicit gay sex. Franco insists they're telling a story, and then he and Mathews totally neglect to pick up the characters and narrative that inspired them. Showing: 7 p.m. Tuesday at Logan Theatre